To Kill the Child/Leaving Beirut
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| "To Kill the Child / Leaving Beirut" | ||
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| Single by Roger Waters | ||
| A-side(s) | To Kill the Child | |
| B-side(s) | Leaving Beirut | |
| Released | 2004 | |
| Format | CD single, digital download | |
| Label | Sony Music | |
| Writer(s) | Roger Waters | |
| Producer(s) | Roger Waters and Nick Griffiths | |
| Roger Waters singles chronology | ||
| What God Wants, Part 1 (1992) | To Kill the Child / Leaving Beirut (2004) | ... |
Leaving Beirut/To Kill the Child is a CD single (in Japan only) and a digital download released by Roger Waters in 2004.
Contents |
[edit] To Kill the Child
The first song of the single runs at 3 minutes and 31 seconds. Lyrics reference Waters' prior songs "The Tide Is Turning", "The child lay in the starlit night / Safe in the glow of his Donald Duck light," possibly as part of Waters' ongoing themes.
The song discusses several aspects of why a culture whose primary concerns are luxury, consumption and petty values would want "to kill the child." It is no doubt in reference to Waters' view on how war is orchestrated in order satisfy mass production and paranoid fears, regardless of who is killed. The song ends with a plead from Waters to protect this child mentioned in the song, a metaphor for all unwilling victims of warfare, "Take this child to the moral high ground / Where he can look down on the bigots and bully boys slugging it out in the yard."
[edit] Leaving Beirut
The title track of the single runs at 12 minutes and 29 seconds. Most of the song's lyrics are derived from a short story about Waters' hitchhiking excursion in Lebanon when he was a teenager. These passages, intoned in monologue over a descending synthesizer ostinato, are interspersed with more recently-penned refrains outlining Waters' reaction to United States and United Kingdom involvement in the Iraq War.
Waters has performed the song at every show on his The Dark Side of the Moon Live tour, replacing the spoken-word recitation with a visual backdrop of the story as a graphic novel.
[edit] Controversy and criticism
Waters' lyrical condemnation of George W. Bush received negative reactions from audience members during his show at New Jersey's PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel on September 6, 2006 and at Madison Square Garden in New York City on September 12 and September 13; however, audience reactions during the October 5, 2006 performance at the Hollywood Bowl were overwhelmingly positive, with many patrons rising to their feet and cheering. The song also received a positive reaction during its performance at the Massachusetts Tweeter Center Boston on September 8 and September 9, at the Sydney show of January 25, 2007, at the Auckland show of January 29, 2007, at the Mumbai on February 18, 2007, at Mexico City on March 06, 2007, at São Paulo on March 24, 2007 and particularly in Dubai, United Arab Emirates on February 21, 2007. [1]
While many fans have embraced the song's lyrical content, which is sympathetic towards the people of Lebanon, some have objected to Waters' political stance. One editorial in a Jewish state newspaper accused Waters for his protest against the Israeli West Bank barrier.[2] The editor claimed that Waters was supporting a country whose government was directly responsible for the development of terrorist groups who have historically targeted Jews as terror victims. On 2006, Waters performed a concert in Neve Shalom, Israel (as part of his Dark Side of The Moon tour. in fornt of a big crowd of Jewish Israelis. On the middle of the concert, Waters said that he is not supporting any terrorist states, and supporting peace, but expressed his opinios against the Israeli West Bank barrier. The morning after Waters' concert in Neve Shalom, editorial writer Ben Dror Yemini wrote in the Tel Avivnewspaper Maariv:
| “ | [I]nstead of demonstrating against genocide in Sudan, or arrests in Syria, or the oppression of women in Saudi Arabia, Waters demonstrated against Israel, canceling his appearance here[...] So who made you boss, Mr. Waters? Who are you to preach to us against the separation fence? What do you know about the hundreds of Israelis whose blood was spilled? What do you know about an entire nation that has to protect itself? What do you know about the hundreds of suicide bombers who came here not to kill the occupation, but to kill Jews?[2] | ” |
The song has also received some criticism for its musical content and style; one review of the 10 October show at the Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California claimed that the song "floundered" musically despite being lyrically "one of Waters' best post-Floyd works."[3]
[edit] Notes
| Roger Waters |
|---|
| Discography |
| Studio albums: The Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking | Radio KAOS | Amused to Death | Ça Ira |
| Soundtracks: Music from "The Body" | When the Wind Blows |
| Live: The Wall Live in Berlin | In the Flesh Live |
| Compilations: Flickering Flame |
| Singles: The Tide Is Turning | What God Wants, Pt. 1 | To Kill the Child/Leaving Beirut |
| Videos and DVDs |
| Pink Floyd The Wall | The Wall Live in Berlin | In the Flesh Live | The Making of The Dark Side of the Moon |
| Tours |
| In the Flesh | The Dark Side of the Moon Live |
| Related articles |
| Pink Floyd | David Gilmour | Alan Parker | Gerald Scarfe | Ron Geesin | The Final Cut | The Wall | "Hello (I Love You)" |
